Shriners mark 100 years of helping children

The banners are everywhere in and around New Bern, welcoming the Sudan Shriners this weekend for their annual Winter Ceremonial, which includes the area’s largest annual parade at noon on Saturday.

This is a special year for the Sudan group, whose membership totals nearly 5,000 in an area east of I-95 stretching from the South Carolina to the Virginia border.

It is the 100th anniversary of Sudan, headquartered in New Bern since it was founded by a local doctor, Joseph Rhem. On Saturday, there will be an 11 a.m. wreath-laying ceremony at his tall monument and headstone in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Steve Norris, the 2012 Sudan Potentate, has gone through old records, including minutes and put together a 100-year history of the group, which he presented to visiting Shriners Friday night in a PowerPoint presentation, including old photos.

The regional Shriner headquarters were knowns as temples, a term still used, although many are now referred to as Shrine centers.

Shriners began in New York in 1872, and after a slow start, it began to grow and flourish across the country. In the 1880s, a chapter was established in Richmond, Va., followed by a Southern movement to Charlotte in the 1890s, where the Oasis was established. Among its founders was William Henry Belk, founder of Belk department stores.

“Dr. Rhem became a member of Oasis in 1906,” said Norris.

Subsequently, he served as potentate.

“After that, he became determined he was going to start a temple in New Bern,” Norris said. “At the time, Oasis was the only one in North and South Carolina. About 1915, he really began working on it and then in 1917 at the international ceremonial, we were granted our charter.”

Norris found some interesting numbers such as the annual dues, which were $7 a year.

“If you do the inflation calculator on that, it ought to be $100, and low and behold, that is exactly what our dues are,” he said.

He said the original petition mentioned about 400 interested Nobles from areas such as Wilmington, Rocky Mount, Wilson and other towns who wanted a temple in New Bern.

In 1919 there was a ceremonial in Wilson, still the largest in history as far as new Shriner candidates, with more than 450.

The original New Bern Sudan headquarters at the corner of Broad and East Front streets was a two-story colonial style home, which was bought around 1919 for $42,000, the equivalent of about $600,000 today.

“Over time additional parcels of land were purchased,” Norris said.

The major construction move of Sudan came in the 1950s with the building of the current temple and the demolition of the old house, suspected of having termite damage.

The auditorium was built first about 1951. Norris said an interesting fact was that section was raised because of flooding from the nearby Neuse River.

Records indicated that by raising the structure, “it would be an excellent place location to hold fish fries and oyster roasts,” which have become major fundraisers for more than a half-century.

With a large exhibition hall and kitchen area downstairs and an upstairs auditorium capable of seating 300-plus, it became a major downtown venue, including dances and stage shows. Elvis Presley performed there around 1955, although he was on the undercard to headliner Hank Snow. The facility has hosted events ranging from book sales and train shows to being the first home of the RiverTowne Players in the early 2000s.

He said that the original hand-drawn floor plans for the first section includes the now-famous dome, which has become an icon of the city’s skyline.

But, Norris is at a loss for explanation from the records about the building of the offices and dormitories five years later. It was constructed on the site of the old house and not elevated.

“What is dumfounding is that we built it on the dirt,” Norris said. “And, that is the part that has flooded 10 times. It has always puzzled me how that happened.”

Norris said the Shriners famous parade units as well as the fundraising for Shriners Hospitals for Children date to the beginnings of Sudan.

The international hospital system began in 1922 in Shreveport, La., and has expanded to 22 in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The closest to New Bern is the orthopedic unit in Greenville, S.C., which has treated countless Eastern North Carolina children for injuries, illness and burns — all free of charge.

“As far as Sudan, that has always been our big push,” he said.

A major Shriner fundraiser and public awareness event is the annual Shrine Bowl all-star high school football game between North and South Carolina.

“We also used to be called the fish-fry capital of the world because all of our Shrine clubs and units had them in the communities to raise money for the hospitals,” Norris said. “It was a well-oiled machine. We had all these cookers that we could take all over Eastern North Carolina and we made quite a bit of money.”

A number of the fish fries, such as the annual spring event by the New Bern Shrine Club, have endured and are staples on local events calendar.

The first bands appeared before 1920 and the Drum and Bugle Corps parade unit dates to 1925. Norris suggests that parades were under way by that time. A charter parade unit was the New Bern-based Patrol.

Later, a Spring Ceremonial and parade were added along with the New Bern winter event. The spring event is located in the home area of the new potentate. Norris said that the impact of public events such as the parade and fish fries is not just money, but awareness of Shriners and what they do for children.

The hallways of the local Shriner building in New Bern is lined with photos of events, past potentates and other officers — a virtual who’s who of notable men from New Bern and around Eastern North Carolina.

Sudan has had two members who were later chosen to lead Shriners International as its imperial potentate.

The first was Dr. Herb Poteat, a Wake Forest College Latin professor who was the imperial potentate in 1950.

He was installed in Los Angeles, Calif., and Sudan reserved 17 Pullman train cars to transport more than 260 Eastern North Carolina Shriners to the installation.

The other was Harvey W. Smith, a northern transplant who established a lucrative fleet of menhaden boats near Beaufort, S.C. He was chosen to the imperial Outer Guard in 1968 and was scheduled to be the imperial potentate in 1978, but died two years before his appointment.

Norris said the Sudan Shriners, from its 400 initial members, hit its peak in the late 1970s with about 14,000 members.

That has decreased over the years for a simple reason — attrition by death — with the average Shriner being more than 60.

“What is catching us like any other group or fraternity is age,” Norris said. “The younger people aren’t ‘joiners.’”

But, Norris said that there are hopeful signs from studies in seven states on college-age population interest in being part of civic and fraternal organizations.

“There is a shift that people are starting to look at something else,” he said. “They like to go out and find it themselves. They connect better with their grandparents than with their parents. They are starting to connect with some of the things that were important to their grandparents.”

Norris said another tradition — Shriners is just for dad’s night at the lodge — is changing to more family-friendly events.

“We are pushing that it be a family organization and why wouldn’t we be when our biggest push is to help take care of kids,” he added.

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or 252-259-7585, or charlie.hall@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @CharlieHallNBSJ

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